[Kate] The Musee d'Orsay Treasure Hunt: Part I--Preparation

The Musee d'Orsay is one of our family's favorite museums.  And so, to put a spin on it this time, we decided to have a treasure hunt.  

Inside the main room of the Musee d'Orsay, from above.

Dad put together a list of things (some more specific that others) to look for, each with a value of points.  Grace, Cannon and I had one hour to find as many of those thing as we could.  We were given the list of objectives twenty four hours before the hunt.  The list was as follows:

Works of Art (100 pts each)

•The Circus – Seurat

•Luncheon on the Grass (Le dejeuner sur l’herbe) – Manet

•Moulin de la Galette – Renoir

•Banquette de Fumoir (furniture) – Guimard

•The Church  at Auvers– Van Gogh

•Clock (architectural feature)

•Polar Bear (sculpture) – Pomplon

•Cardplayers – Cezanne

•The Floor Scrapers – Caillebotte

•The Angelus – Millet

•The Source -- Ingres

Any work by (100 pts for each artist found):

•Monet

•Gaugin

•Whistler

•Maillol (sculpture only)

•Degas

Miscellaneous (100 pts each unless otherwise marked)

•Painting of a market scene

•Painting of a religious scene

•Painting of at home scene

•Painting of a nautical scene

•Painting of a hunt

•Painting of a marriage

•Painting of a murder

•Painting of a miracle

•Each different animal you can see in the museum on paintings and in sculptures (10 points each)

Bonus (200 pts each)

•Painting with the most people

•Painting with the most animals

•Oldest piece of art

•Most recent piece of art

Each of us had a very different strategy of preparing for the scavenger hunt.  At the moment, there was a great deal of secrecy surrounding the research that people were doing.  It was only afterwards that found out everything that people had been doing.

Cannon found some pictures of all of the specified paintings, along with when they were painted and the artist.  He also had the lifespans of the specified artists, and a few notes considering which paintings to use for the miscellaneous and bonus sections.

Grace made hand drawn maps of the museum's layout, labeling where certain works of art were, as well as a list of the artwork to find on each floor.

I also made maps with added labels, but digitally, which I could access from my phone.  I had pictures of all the specific paintings I had to find, and lists of places where I could find artwork from the specified artists.  I spent a lot of time going through the Musee d'Orsay website, and consequently had already found paintings of a nautical scene and a hunt.



The next day, we got to the museum and prepared to start.  Then Dad threw in a wild card, which was an added thing to look for that we hadn't had time to research.  He told us that now any work created by an artist whose last name started with a C was worth twenty five points.  Uh oh.  I decided not to worry about that for now.  I'd get everything I had a location for before I worried about that.  Dad started the timer.

See Part II for the hunt itself, and who wins!